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A Salute To A Legion Of Heroes Their Stories Are Worth Recalling Even If Memories Have Faded

10 Nov 1988

A Salute To A Legion Of Heroes Their Stories Are Worth Recalling Even If Memories Have Faded

Raymond W. Fritzinger was aware of his fate. Before he went off to war in November, 1942, the Walnutport auto mechanic told relatives privately that he didn't think he would be back

Less than 1 1/2 years later, Sergeant Fritzinger was missing in action. A tailgunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress, his plane was shot down over the North Sea on Feb. 4, 1944, as it was returning to England from a bombing mission to Frankfurt, Germany.

Just 26 years old, Fritzinger was declared dead on Sept. 18, 1945, the first man from the borough of Walnutport killed in World War II.

He left behind a wife, Ethel (Wright) Fritzinger, and a 2-year-old son, Darrel.

Darrel, now a New Tripoli resident, followed in his father's footsteps. A former jet mechanic in the U.S. Air Force and a member of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, Darrel now works for the U.S. Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment Service. Darrel remembered nothing about his father and said his late mother never talked much about him. But recent years have brought insight into his father's life.

In 1986, when the 42-year-old Raymond W. Fritzinger Post 7215, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Walnutport, rededicated its war memorial, Darrel chatted for the first time with borough residents who knew his father. He also obtained some of his father's military records, learning for the first time exactly how he died.

401sT BOMBARDMENT GROUP (H)

"We always avoid the Ruhr for this reason unless, of course, there is an

assigned target. It has many nicknames, particularly "Flak Valley" and

"Happy Valley". Well, unfortunately, we "toured the Ruhr"

and it compared with Cognac in many respects. I have to confess that by this time I

was becoming a little "Flak Happy" and frankly hated to even "'watch the

damned stuff."

1st Lt. William W. Dolan.

615th Sqdn. Bombardier.

The loss of Lt. J.F. Zitkovic and Crew - sadly, there were no survivors.

"The aircraft, apparently hit by flak, was straggling some 4,000 feet

lower than the formation (about 18,000 feet). All four engines were

turning over and the aircraft seemed to be under control. Flak was

bursting all around the ship when. last seen."

2nd Lt. Clifford C. Bergeson

614th Sqdn. Co-pilot.

Page 12

February 1944

The Group chalked up ten more missions in February - one more than the

previous month. The reason for this was a decision reached by USAAF and

RAF officials to hammer the Air Volar home to Germany while the Luftwaffe

and German industrial cities were still reeling from previous blows. Day

and night, the skies over England resounded with the heavy roar of planes

on their way to Occu~ied Europe.

Strategically it was decided to strike at the main barrier in the way

of the invasion of the Western front -- the Luftwaffe. For this reason the

factories and plants manufacturing German fighter planes were struck time

and time again. Whole airfields and airdromes were obliterated in northwestern France and western Germany.

At the time it was impossible to judge the results. staggering blows were

delivered to the German aircraft production plants, but only the skies

over the Second Front could give the true answer.

Captain Dehlyn "Hi Ho" Silver led the Group on its 19th mission, when

Hilhelmshaven, the great port and fighter base on the North Sea coast was

attacked. Over 1,100 fighters and bombers participated. The 401st immerged

unscathed and the bombing results were good. The date was 3rd February.

The next day, the 4th, Lt. Col. Harris E. Rogner, the Air Executive, was

transferred to 94th Combat i;/ing Headquarters and Lt. Col. Burton K. Voorhees arrived from \'/ing to take his place.

Thus departed one of the key figures in the 401st. A great athlete at

West Point, a pilot's pilot and one of the most popular and respected

officers in the Group, his loss was felt keenly by the enlisted men as

well as his fellow officers.

A fellow officer said of him:

IIHe had the knack of handling men because he could do any job just a little bit better than the next fellow whether playing baseball, leading a

formation of Fortresses, breaking records at skeet, handling a billiard

cue, or conducting the myriad executive duties of his office, Colonel

Rogner was tops.

He was 'tlhat they had in mind when the phase "An officer and a gentleman"

was coined."

On October 11th 1944 Col. Rogner took over as Commanding Officer of the

457th B.G. (H) at Glatton, a member of the 94th Combat Bomb Wing. The

post war years saw Col. Rogner attend staff college and then serve with

NATO. During the Korean War he was given a combat command and led several

B-29 missions. It proved to be his last command because late in 1951, on

his way home in a 3-29, he was killed in the crash of the B-29 as it attempted an instrument landing at Barksdale Field, Louisana.

On 28th July 1945 Col. Rogner and his second in command, Lt. Col. William

F. Smith, flew a B-25 from their Sioux Falls base to Ne\'/"ark, New York,

where Col. Rogner spent the weekend with his family. He allowed Lt. Col.

Smith to go on to Bedford, Massachusetts, with the B-25 so that he could

pick him up at Newark the follo\·ling day. On the following day Lt. Col.

Smith found himself in very bad weather over New York, and, after a zigzag course between the towering building of the city struck the Empire state Building, passing clean through it and out the other side.

Page 13

On the same day that Col. Rogner moved to Polebrook to join the 94th C.B.

Wing, Major Brooks led the Combat Wing on a mission to Frankfurt. It was

the 20th mission and despite intense flak, the Wing ploughed through a